It Started With Coffee
by ForseenMystic
Summary: Parker started small, but it grew into something no one expected...well maybe Parker did, but she's always been a little crazy.


It started off with coffee. They met a week after the trial to just chat and enjoy a cup of coffee that wasn't like the acid they had gotten while doing jury duty. They had laughed and talked and had a great time. They continued meeting for weeks after that, Alice was there when the economy tanked and she lost her job. She got her a job as a receptionist at the company she worked at, it wasn't glamorous, but it paid decently. It was all very secretive though, she didn't even know what Leverage Consulting did; after all she just paid the bills and watered the plants during their many business trips. Alice was different with them. She was a bit colder, and showed a touch of insanity at times, but when it was just the two of them, she was sweet and funny, even if she didn't always get her jokes.

It wasn't until after Peggy's husband left her for a twenty-year old fitness instructor that she found even part of the truth. When she was crying on Alice's shoulder, Alice promised that they would get him back. Peggy was planning on getting a makeover and a new outfit to make him jealous before smashing his car with a crowbar. Alice however called Hardison, whom it turned out was highly skilled with computers. Between the three of them, they had discovered her husband's secret accounts that they transferred to Alice, who would hold them until after the divorce. It was then that they also found out about how his car company was a front for the local cartels to bring in drugs. Instantly, Alice and Hardison had called in the others. Peggy was shuffled out of the room and as far as she knew the matter was dropped. The group went on a business trip, and she continued watering the plants and paying the bills. Then a week later she found out that both her husband and the cartels had been busted during a sale. The name of the town they had been caught in, which was suspicious enough since they hadn't gotten caught in the past fifteen years, was the same where all the business expenses were coming from this particular business trip.

When they returned, no worse for the wear except for Elliot who had a bruise on his head, she demanded answers. So they told her everything, more or less. They told her the truth about their company and their different roles, but she didn't believe they told her their real motives or histories, and why would they? They couldn't trust her, not yet. But by god, she was going to learn the different tricks and such from them, until they could trust her. And then she could be part of a family again, their family.

As the years passed, she helped Nate and Hardison with research; she went shopping with Sophie, and listened to her stories, picking up on every nuance and accent. She and Alice (she never stopped calling her that, because that's who Parker was with her) practiced lock picking, went rock-climbing, rappelling, and even skydiving, all the while she noticed how to walk with grace and stealth, and how to be fearless. Elliot taught her how to fight, building on the years of self-defense she had taken in her old life. Inside she was relieved she and her husband had been unable to have children as she became deeper entrenched in their lives. She occasionally played the distraction as the team went in on their cons. In the company she had been promoted to a "junior partner" and her salary had increased exponentially. She even had a couple aliases available to her, though she had to use her real identity as her main one. She had gained the trust of the team. When Nate and Sophie had gotten married (finally) and had children, she was named godmother. When Elliot needed someone for the softer side of things, he called her. And whenever Hardison was having trouble with a hack that turned out wasn't completely on computers, she went in to erase the paper trail.

Now as she stood on top of the antiquities department of the Cairo Museum with Alice, she grinned. She, Peggy Martin, was about to steal a painting with one of the most notorious thieves on the planet, and it started so small, with just a cup of coffee, and she had gained a family.


End file.
